Munich: Town Hall (Neues Rathaus)
City: Munich
State: Bavaria
Set: Town Hall (Neues Rathaus)
The Neues Rathaus is a town hall at the northern part of Marienplatz in Munich. The complex of brick and shell limestone has six courtyards, built on an area 9159 m2 where the building covers 7115 m2. The almost 100-meter-long main façade leading to Marienplatz is richly decorated. It shows Guelph Duke Henry the Lion and almost the entire line of the House of Wittelsbach rule in Bavaria and is the most extensive Princely cycle at a German Town Hall. As a central monument in the middle of the main façade, between the two building sections on the Marienplatz above the guardhouse, is a statue of the Prince Regent Luitpold. On the main façade of the Marienplatz and on that of the Weinstrasse are Munich’s founders, neo-gothic water fountains in the form of grimaces and masks, allegorical images, and themes from the life of saints and folk legends. The corner of Marienplatz and Weinstrasse is called Wurmeck, and the corner of Weinstrasse and Landschaftsstrasse is called Kleubereck. Numerous glass windows with local, regional, national, international and religious motifs adorn the building. After most of the windows had been destroyed by the bombings during the final phase of the Second World War, most of the objects could be restored to their original form with the help of donations. The 85 m high Rathausturm is crowned by the Münchner Kindl, created by Anton Schmid, with his son Wiggerl (Ludwig Schmid-Wildy) as model. At the top of the tower is the fifth-largest clockwork in Europe, which was first heard in 1908. The 43 bells of the mechanical clock play successively four different melodies, to which a total of 32 figures represent the Schäfflertanz and a knights tournament at the wedding of the Bavarian Duke William V and Renata of Lorraine in 1568. The melodies are changed over the course of the year, six different combinations of four songs are used. In the windows of the seventh tower a Munich night watchman appears blowing on his horn, as well as an angel blessing the Münchner Kindl. The Town Hall has 400 rooms, and the cellar is almost completely built as a restaurant: the Ratskeller.
